N.E.R.D 2009-present: Nothing and No One Ever Really Dies What is Nothing? In 2010, N.E.R.D announced the release of their fourth studio album entitled Nothing,
Who is NERD?
Who is the band NERD?
In 2010, N.E.R.D announced the release of their fourth studio album entitled Nothing, which had a scheduled release date for September 7, 2010, but was pushed back to November 2, 2010. The first single from the album, "Hot-n-Fun" featuring Canadian recording artist Nelly Furtado, was released on May 18, 2010 on iTunes. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2010.  On August 20, 2010, a track titled "Party People" leaked onto the internet. It was rumored to be the second single from the album. On September 28, 2010, they premiered another track from the album titled "Hypnotize U" on Late Show with David Letterman, produced by electronic music duo Daft Punk. On September 30, 2010, in an interview with Mark Hoppus on A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus, Pharrell explained the album cover as "a mix of so many things. The feathers represent the peace, and the helmet represents the war. It's like where we are right now. There's a lot of war, that people can't necessarily explain. The economy sucks, girls are still beautiful. We wanted to make music that reflected that. So people can look back twenty years from now, and say 'this is what was going on'". They then announced in the interview that the next two singles would be "I've Seen the Light" and "Hypnotize U". Pharrell described "Hypnotize U" as being "so different from the rest of the album", stating he was "very pleased because it serves a different purpose" in the album.  On October 17, 2010, the standard edition and the deluxe edition of the album became available for pre-order on iTunes. It was later announced that they would support Gorillaz on the North American leg of their 2010 'Escape to Plastic Beach' world tour. In 2013, Pharrell confirmed a N.E.R.D album was in progress, but also mentioned that the album would not be released that year due to the projects he was working on with other artists. He has also said the album will be "nature-based". The group reunited on December 26, 2014, to release the songs "Squeeze Me," "Patrick Star," and "Sandy Squirrel" for the film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.  N.E.R.D's fifth album, No One Ever Really Dies, was released on December 15, 2017 through i am OTHER and Columbia Records. It features guest appearances from Andre 3000, M.I.A., Gucci Mane, Wale, and Ed Sheeran among others. It was preceded by three singles; "Lemon" with Rihanna (on November 1), "1000" with Future (on November 29), and "Don't Don't Do It!" with Kendrick Lamar (on December 13). CANNOTANSWER
Pharrell
American Burger is a 2014 Swedish comedy horror film starring Fredrik Hiller, Liam Macdonald, Benjamin Brook, Aggy Kukawka and Ben Thornton. It is directed by first-time feature film director's Johan Bromander & Bonita Drake.

The film was released was released globally online via Movieboosters on 17 October 2014.

Plot
American Burger follows the stories of a bunch of stereotypical American school students (Nerds, Jocks & Cheerleaders) on a culture trip through Europe. Among the students are Fat Nerd (Liam Macdonald) & Preppy Nerd (Benjamin Brook), Camera Nerd (Charlie Petersson) & Wonky Eyes Nerd (Ben Thorton) and Nice Cheerleader (Aggy K. Adams), Adorable Cheerleader (Madeleine Borg) & Ponytail Cheerleader (Hanna Nygren). Heading the group is the enthusiastic Teacher (Lena Bengtsson) who tries her hardest to ensure the children appreciate their trip.

The students soon find their way to the mystical country of Kraketch, whose main source of economy is the American Burger Factory run by Demented Butcher (Fredrik Hiller). The school students are invited to tour the factory, but not before Demented Butcher orders his Butchers to kill the students and bring them into the factory. Several students escape and form unlikely pacts: Fat Nerd, Preppy Nerd, Wonky Eyes Nerd (whose name is later revealed to actually be 'Mike) & Ponytail Cheerleader and Camera Nerd, Jock, Quarterback & Nice Cheerleader for the other. Adorable Cheerleader loses the others and runs off by herself as does Teacher.

Slowly, the Butchers hunt, stalk and kill the students. Preppy Nerd is kidnapped by butchers, thinking he is already dead; Adorable Cheerleader hilariously loses almost all her clothes and now speaks with a lisp after eating poison berries; Fat Nerd steals a dead Butcher's outfit and escapes to the main road leading out of Kraketch and Nice Cheerleader & Camera Nerd run to escape a horde of butchers.

Whilst at the American Burger factory waiting to be slaughtered, it is discovered that Preppy Nerd is actually a Canadian. A disgusted Demented Butcher apologises profusely and allows Preppy Nerd to leave with his blessings. Preppy Nerd then locates the student's bus and drives away from the factory.

On the way out of Kraketch, Preppy Nerd locates some of his classmates. He first picks up Adorable Cheerleader, then Fat Nerd & Teacher before saving Nice Cheerleader from a horde of Butchers. The gang drive away in the school bus and leave Kraketch for good.

Cast
 Fredrik Hiller as Demented Butcher
 Liam Macdonald as Fat Nerd
 Benjamin Brook as Preppy Nerd
 Ben Thornton as Mike, Wonky Eyes Nerd
 Aggy K. Adams as Nice Cheerleader
 Madeleine Borg as Adorable Cheerleader
 Lena Bengtsson as Teacher
 Charlie Petersson as Camera Nerd
 Gabriel Freilich as Quarterback
 Hjalmar Strid as Jock

Reception
American Burger received mixed reviews from critics although its technical aspects were praised. Borg & Macdonald were also praised for their roles as Adorable Cheerleader & Fat Nerd respectively by the Ostersund Posten.

Proposed sequel
A sequel to American Burger, called American Burger 2: Back to Kraketch is currently in development. Hiller, Macdonald, Brook, Kukawka & Borg are all expected to reprise their roles.

Filming locations
All filming took place in Östersund, Sweden.

References

External links

2014 films
2014 horror films
Swedish slasher films Nerd sniping is slang term for the action of giving an interesting problem to a person (usually a nerd), which will cause them to put a lot of effort into trying to solve the problem. The nerd stops all activity to devote attention to solving the problem, often at his or her own peril.

It was coined by xkcd author Randall Munroe in the 356th comic of the series on 12 December 2007.

The term has been documented (with slightly different interpretations) in Urban Dictionary on September 23, 2012:

1. The act of presenting someone, often a mathematician/physicist with a time consuming problem or challenge (often impossible to solve or complete) in the hopes of it appealing to a person's obsessive tendencies.

2. Doing the thing above in a situation where the obsession may lead to bodily harm (in the original context on the middle of a road where they will get inevitably run-over by a truck). 

Techopedia on November 12, 2020 said:

Nerd sniping is a slang term that describes a particularly interesting problem that is presented to a nerd, often a physicist, tech geek or mathematician.

The nerd stops all activity to devote attention to solving the problem, often at his or her own peril. 

Beyond science, tech and math, the media agency Colle McVoy published 21 episodes of podcast between 2019 and 2021 called "Nerd Sniped" - "A podcast dedicated to chasing down the curious questions and challenges brands face today"

It's also been used in the context of employers understanding neurodiverse employees with ADHD:

[ADHD] often produces the ability to 'hyperfocus', a kind of Godzilla attention laser beam that you can train on a complex task, which you won't let go of until it's done to an absurdly high standard. A legit superpower. But moving between tasks when you're in a hyperfocused state? Very hard. The nerd sniping risk is real.

References

External links 
 Nerd Sniping
 Explain xkcd for Nerd Sniping
 Urban Dictionary: Nerd Sniping
 What is Nerd Sniping? - Definition from Techopedia
 NerdSniped podcast

Hacker culture
Nerd culture In baseball statistics, NERD (a wink towards the mnemonic "Narration, Exposition, Reflection, Description") is a quantitative measure of expected aesthetic value. NERD was originally created by Carson Cistulli and is part of his project of exploring the "art" of sabermetric research. The original NERD formula only took into account the pitcher's expected performance while the current model factors in the entire team's performance.

History
The premise for NERD was developed in Cistulli's piece "Why We Watch" in which he establishes the five reasons that baseball continues to captivate the American imagination from game to game: "Pitching Matchups," "Statistically Notable (or Otherwise Compelling) Players," "Rookies (and Debuts)," "Seasonal Context," and "Quality of Broadcast".  Fellow sabermatrician Rob Neyer, who had collaborated with Cistulli on this piece, wrote "the only thing missing [...] is a points system that would let us put a number on each game" and on June 2, 2010 Cistulli unveiled the NERD Pitching formula.

NERD pitching
NERD pitching tries to determine which pitchers will be the most aesthetically appealing to watch for a baseball fan and is both a historical and a predictive statistic. The NERD pitching formula uses a player's standard deviations from the mean (a weighted z-score) of the DIPS statistic xFIP (expected Fielding Independent Pitching), swinging strike percentage, overall strike percentage, and the differential between the pitcher's ERA and xFIP to determine a quantitative value for each pitcher.

The factor of 4.69 is added to make the number fit on a 0 to 10 scale.  While there has been some disagreement on the calculation of Cistulli's luck component, the general consensus among sports writers seems to be that a player with a below-average ERA and an above-average xFIP has been "unlucky".

Team NERD
Following the model of his Pitching NERD, Team NERD tries to give a quantitative value to the aesthetic value of each of the 30 baseball teams.  For factors it accounts for "Age," "Park-Adjusted weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA)," "Park-Adjusted Home Run per Fly Ball (HR/FB)," "Team Speed," "Bullpen Strength," "Team Defense," "Luck" (Base Runs – Actual Runs Scored), and "Payroll".

In a recent interview Cistulli admitted that there is a disconnect between The Rays high tNERD rating and low attendance saying that he is considered adding a "park-adjustment" to his formula which would reflect either the stadium itself or "attendance relative to the stadium's capacity" but overall reception of this statistic has been positive and Fangraphs started reporting Team NERD in Cistulli's One Night Only columns beginning August 23, 2010.

References

Baseball statistics
Baseball terminology